Freedom
by Janna Silver Hawkins
Summary: Sequel to "Snowbound". A rare nice day on Berk makes everyone take the opportunity to stretch their legs or wings


**The sequel to _Snowbound_. I discovered a couple things while writing this: 1-I love writing Ruff and Tuff! Will definitely be doing more in the future. And 2-Cold and wet Hiccup and Toothless in the snow are adorable. Hope you like!**

* * *

Hiccup awoke to hot, fishy smelling breath being blown steadily into his face. He opened his eyes slightly, promptly turned over and covered his head with a blanket.

The large dark dragon sitting next to his bed whined loudly and yanked at the blanket with his teeth.

Hiccup uncovered his head and glared. "Go away. I'm tired, Toothless. Ask Dad to let you out."

The Night Fury seemed to glare right back and stalked into the ray of sunlight coming through a tiny window. Wait...sunlight?

Hiccup scrambled out of bed as fast as his legs would let him and hurried to the window. Looking out, he was nearly blinded by the sunlight reflecting off the snow. After blinking back the tears caused by the light, Hiccup turned to Toothless and grinned. "Guess what, bud! We can go outside today!"

The dragon immediately began leaping about the room, crashing into everything while at the same time purring loudly. He came to a stop underneath his harness and saddle and looked at Hiccup hopefully.

Hiccup laughed. "Of course we're gonna fly, Toothless! Just let me get our stuff ready." He lifted the tack from the wall and carefully hooked Toothless up. Once the eager dragon was fully ready and had raced down the stairs to annoyed shouts from

Hiccup's father, the young Viking quickly dressed and pulled on his gear.

After clambering down the stairs as fast as his metal leg would let him, Hiccup said a quick 'good morning' to his father while pulling on his winter furs before he and Toothless raced outside. Once in the cold air, the dragon began to race around in circles excitedly while Hiccup grinned. The teenager took a deep breath of the fresh air-only to choke and splutter as a large snowball struck him in the face. He wiped the snow away to see Ruffnut and Tuffnut mounted on their Hideous Zippleback laughing from a short distance away. "Hey! What was that for?"

"Aw come on, Hiccup," Ruffnut said with a smirk. "You didn't expect us to just stand around on the one good day this winter!"

"Yeah, we've got so many plans that we've been working on while we were cooped up!" Tuffnut chuckled.

Hiccup backed away cautiously as the twins each lifted another snowball to throw at him. Their Zippleback followed, both heads hissing eagerly. "Uh, Toothless? A little help here, bud!"

His dragon bounded over and shot a jet of fire at the approaching Zippleback, causing it to veer to the side and dump its passengers into a snow bank.

"Hey, no fair!" Tuffnut exclaimed, clambering out of the drift. "Foul, Hiccup! I demand a do over!"

"I can help with that," his sister replied, tackling him and shoving his head back into the snow bank.

"Betrayal! You're going down, sister!" Tuffnut yelled as he squirmed free and Ruffnut took a turn in the snow.

As the twins continued to wrestle in the drifts, Hiccup and Toothless quietly hurried away only to come face to face with Fishlegs and his Gronkle when they turned a corner.

"Oh, hi, Hiccup! Great day, isn't it?"

"Uh, yeah it's really nice compared to what we've been having lately."

"Horrorcow and I are going to head up to fly around pretty soon, want to join us?"

"Maybe later. Have you seen Astrid?"

"Yeah she and Snotlout were practicing over by the arena." The larger boy glanced around then leaned closer to Hiccup. "She was kicking his butt good," he whispered conspiratorially.

"I heard that!"

The boys turned to see an angry Snotlout sauntering toward them. Fishlegs gulped and clambered onto his dragon as fast as he could and the two of them took off, leaving Hiccup and Toothless to face the other boy. As the dark-haired Viking got close, the dragon moved between him and Hiccup and growled softly.

Snotlout stopped short and held up his hands. "Whoa there, Night Fury. I'm not gonna do anything."

Toothless snorted derisively but relaxed, letting the other teen near.

The taller boy slung an arm around Hiccup's shoulders and grinned. "So, Dragon Tamer, what are you up to this beautiful morning?"

Hiccup stared. "What's wrong with you?"

"What do you mean? I just think today is a beautiful lovely day and all is right with the world!"

"That. Right there. What happened? Are you drunk?"

"Of course not! Well, I'm off. Time to enjoy more of this beautiful day!"

Snotlout swaggered off, leaving Hiccup and Toothless staring after him.

"He'll be fine. I think I might've hit him a little too hard."

Hiccup spun around to see his girlfriend leaning on her favorite axe. "Astrid! Hi!"

She walked over and pecked him on the cheek. "Hi yourself. Enjoying the nice weather?"

"Well...so far the twins have hit me with snowballs and Fishlegs abandoned me to an over-friendly Snotlout."

"Forgetting anything?"

"Well, Toothless also woke me up before I would have liked."

Astrid punched him on the arm and glared.

"Hey, I was kidding, alright?" Hiccup exclaimed, backing away and rubbing his now sore arm. "Running into you has been the best part of today."

"That's better," she replied, pulling him close for a real kiss.

As she pulled away a few moments later, Hiccup sighed. "I think my arms are going to fall off if you keep hitting me whenever we kiss, Astrid."

Her eyebrow lifted. "Would you rather we not kissed at all?"

"No, no, I can always go through life without my arms."

"Good. Besides, if they do fall off, you can always have new ones made."

"There's an idea. And those wouldn't hurt if you hit them..."

Astrid grinned and hugged him tightly. "Don't worry, it won't come to that. I'll try to be gentler next time."

The young Viking smiled and hugged her back. "Hope so, otherwise you'll soon be dating the only Viking with no real appendages!"

"Well, there's always Gobber..."

"Astrid!"

"Kidding, Hiccup. Now, c'mon, let's go fly."

Toothless whined excitedly and pushed himself between the two of them, looking eagerly between them.

Hiccup laughed and scratched his dragon's head. "Alright, bud, we'll go. Where's your dragon, Astrid?"

"Off hunting or something. She's been gone since before I woke up this morning."

"Oh, so you want to..."

"Ride with you, yeah. Is that alright?"

"Yeah of course. Toothless?"

The dragon nodded and knelt down so that the two humans could climb on. Once they were both sitting comfortably, he took off into the air for the first time in a month. Or, at least he tried to.

Hiccup coughed as he picked himself out of a snow bank. "Well, that could have gone better."

"You think?" Astrid asked sarcastically, looking up to where Toothless was now attempting to get out of the large tree they were underneath.

"He's just a little rusty, I guess."

"Rusty? He's a dragon, Hiccup. How can a dragon get 'rusty' at flying?"

"Well, maybe he's been cooped up for so long...look out!" he exclaimed, pushing her to the side as Toothless came crashing down into the snow bank.

The dragon snarled and righted himself, glaring up at the tree that had so rudely gotten in his way.

Hiccup sighed and walked over to his dragon. "It's alright, bud, we'll try again." He climbed back into the saddle and offered Astrid his hand. As usual, she ignored it and swung herself up.

"This better work this time, Hiccup."

"It will," he said firmly. "Ready, Toothless?"

The dragon crouched down and launched himself into the air, this time actually managing to stay aloft. His large wings pumped furiously, quickly sending them far from the ground. Once they were high enough, he began to spin, causing Astrid to start screaming.

As Toothless leveled out on a gentle air current, she socked Hiccup on the shoulder. "I thought you trained him out of that!"

"Ouch! Oh, come on, Astrid, he loves to do that. Don't worry, you're perfectly safe!"

"Sure I am," she muttered, holding even tighter to Hiccup.

He grinned and sent Toothless into a dive straight towards the ocean, straightening out only a few meters above. Once they were safely skimming over the waves, Astrid finally relaxed and loosened her hold, causing Hiccup to frown.

"This is better," the girl said with a smile.

"Sure, I guess," Hiccup replied, still slightly annoyed that Astrid had let go of him. "There's really no excitement in just...well, I guess you could call it 'floating'."

Astrid grinned and pulled his face towards hers. "Is that more excitement, Hiccup?" she asked, letting him go a little while later.

"Mmm," he replied, a dopey grin on his face.

"I'll take that as a yes. Now, I think we'd better be getting back."

"Uh..." Hiccup cleared his throat and tried again. "Go back? Why?"

She pointed to the sky that had begun to fill with dark clouds.

"Oh. Right. Storms." Hiccup quickly urged Toothless into the air and towards Berk. As they sped towards the now distant island, the blue sky continued to disappear until, as they landed in the middle of the village, all trace of the lovely day had vanished.

Astrid quickly clambered off and ran towards her house, blowing a kiss to Hiccup as she went.

Once he was sure she had gotten into her house, the young Viking turned Toothless toward their own home and urged the dragon into a run. Unfortunately, even at top speed, they couldn't avoid the freezing rain that began to pour down just before they reached the door of the house. Even more unfortunate was the fact that the door was jammed.

~..~

As a loud banging filled the room, partially obscured by the sound of pouring rain, Stoick the Vast reluctantly left his half-polished helmet on the table and went to open the door. The sight that met his eyes caused him to chuckle.

"Yeah yeah I'm sure we look hilarious, Dad. Can you let us in, please?"

The chief moved aside to let his bedraggled son and soaking wet dragon inside. "How was your day, son?"

"Oh, just great, thanks. How was yours?" Hiccup replied as he made his way to the fireplace, followed closely by Toothless.

"I've had better, but it does seem to be shaping up to be much better than it was a few minutes ago."

"Ha ha ha. I should have stayed outside," the teenager muttered, squeezing the water out of his hair, much to the annoyance of Toothless who was now curled up next to Hiccup's legs.

"Oh, come now, son, I was only kidding. Tell you what. I'll make you two something warm to eat, how's that?"

Hiccup sighed and plopped down next to Toothless in order to more easily drain the water from his one boot. "That sounds nice, Dad, thanks."

"Of course, Hiccup. Now, don't forget that you have to clean up all that water."

The young Viking stopped in mid-twist and glanced down at the growing puddle beneath him and Toothless. "Oh. Right. Sorry, Dad."

Stoick would have sworn that he saw the dragon smile smugly before settling down to let Hiccup work.


End file.
